Queer Lisboa - International Queer Film Festival returns to Cinema São Jorge and Cinemateca Portuguesa for its 29th edition, from 19 to 27 September. With around a hundred films already confirmed, the festival unveils the first titles in its programme.

A section par excellence dedicated to highlights from the international circuit, as well as to documentaries with a broader thematic focus on queer culture, this year's Panorama section unveils a set of titles that celebrate figures such as Camila Sosa Villada, Ney Matogrosso, Venus Xtravaganza, Peter Hujar, Sally Gearhart or Alexina B., and others that trace past political contexts, but also present ones, with the dangerous rise of the extreme right in the Western world. This is precisely the theme of the Italian documentary, My Boyfriend the Fascist, by Matthias Lintner, in which the director, a left-winger, films his relationship with his boyfriend, Sadiel Gonzalez, a Cuban migrant in Italy and a supporter of far-right ideologies, revealing his many idiosyncrasies, but which force us to reflect seriously on the times we live in. In fiction cinema, Brazilian duo Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon return to Queer Lisboa with Night Stage, premiered last February at the Berlinale, where political hypocrisy is combined with an appetite for sex in public, in a captivating neo-noir set in modern-day Porto Alegre.

In 1991, a documentary film by Jennie Livingston was released which, despite the many criticisms that accompanied it, became an influential work in queer culture. Paris is Burning revealed the many, until then, anonymous faces of New York's ballroom scene, one of which was Venus Xtravaganza, a trans woman and sex worker whose life was taken from her before the film was released. I'm Your Venus, by trans director Kimberly Reed, seeks answers to Venus disappearance, bringing together her biological and chosen families in a heartfelt and just tribute. From the USA comes another documentary, Sally!by Deborah Craig, which looks back on the life and legacy of Sally Gearhart, who died in 2021, an important pioneer of the lesbian feminist movement in the 1970s and 1980s in the USA, where she was an activist alongside well-known figures such as Harvey Milk.

Returning to the festival is independent filmmaker Ira Sachs, with his latest Peter Hujar's Day, a literary adaptation of the book of the same name by writer Linda Rosenkrantz, which transcribes a conversation she had with the famous American photographer, a friend of hers. With impeccable aesthetics and restraint, Sachs creates an intimate film, an ode to artistic creation and the city of New York, with excellent performances from Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall. From Spain comes the documentary Alexina B. Composing Lives, by Alexis Borràs, which explores the process of creation of Raquel García-Tomás' new opera, inspired by the memoirs of Alexina B., an intersex person from the 19th century, biographed by Foucault in his Herculine Barbin dite Alexina B. In this artistic journey, Raquel García-Tomás transforms the understanding of intersex reality into a source of empathy and inspiration, showing how each musical and narrative decision brings this moving story to life.

Returning to South America are two titles that are a tour de force by their respective protagonists, Jesuíta Barbosa and Camila Sosa Villada. Latin Blood - The Ballad of New Matogrosso, by Esmir Filho, is a glance at the life of Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso, played by Barbosa, skilfully bypassing the temptation to portray the entirety of such a full life, focusing instead on relationships and key moments in his personal and professional life that help us understand this phenomenon of transgression in MPB and which has had such an influence on Brazilian queer culture - with plenty of attention being given to that other icon, Cazuza. A Latin American literary phenomenon, right from her debut novel, As Malditas, Argentinian trans writer Camila Sosa Villada has also made a name for herself as a screenwriter and actress. Adapted by Villada from her novel of the same name, and directed by Javier van de Couter, Thesis on a Domestication places the actress alongside Mexican actor Alfonso Herrera in this hyperbolic construction of an impossible domesticity, in which Villada once again tears up all the canons of normativity.

PANORAMA


Alexina B. Vidas en Composición / Alexina B. Composing Lives, Alexis Borràs (Spain, France, 2025, 77’)

Ato Noturno / Night Stage, Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon (Brazil, 2025, 119’)

Homem com H / Latin Blood - The Ballad of Ney Matogrosso, Esmir Filho (Brazil, 2025, 129’)

I’m Your Venus, Kimberly Reed (USA, 2024, 85’)

My Boyfriend el Fascista / My Boyfriend the Fascist, Matthias Lintner (Italy, 2025, 95’) * pictured above

Peter Hujar’s Day, Ira Sachs (USA, Germany, 2025, 76’)

Sally!, Deborah Craig (USA, 2024, 95’)

Tesis sobre una Domesticación / Thesis on a Domestication, Javier van de Couter (Argentina, 2024, 113’)